The Alchemy Key.pdf - Veritas File System

Israelite principle of ultimogeniture observed by the Scots. At issue was
whether the son (Robert Bruce) of a younger daughter had a better right to
the kingship of Scotland than the grandson (John Balliol) of an elder
daughter. The Scotts called Robert Bruce of Annandale The Competitor.
Eighty Scottish assessors, appointed equally by Robert Bruce of
Annandale and John Balliol, failed to resolve the matter and it was turned
over to Edward I.
Edward I’s judges upheld English usage on succession,
primogeniture, that the issue of an elder line must become exhausted
before succession could pass to that of a younger line. After his loss,
Robert Bruce pursued his second option, which was to split Scotland into
its three original components of Lothian, Alban and Strathclyde and
award these to the representatives of the three co-heiresses. He again lost
the argument. Edward I’s judges decided the kingdom of Scotland was
indivisible and impartiable. In this decision, however, Edward I
unwittingly established the basis of Scotland’s future independence.
We can clearly see Shakespeare’s King Lear reflected in Robert
Bruce’s dilemma. He was eighty-one years old. Having been the
nominated king and now all-but lost his kingdom due to Edward I’s legal
ruling and his advanced age: would he seek to split the kingdom between
the daughters, with the youngest one (his own line) receiving the choicest
piece, or would he see the kingdom go in whole to a younger king? He
endeavored to split the kingdom but as with Shakespeare’s King Lear,
Robert Bruce The Competitor lost all. He died in 1294 but the Scots
crowned his grandson Robert the Bruce king in 1306 and sixty five years
later, in 1371, his great-great grandson Robert II, became the first Alanic
Stuart king.
Perhaps even more topical for the Elizabethans of Shakespeare’s
time was the political folly of splitting the mighty kingdom of France.
Jean le Bon, John the Good, in an acute lack of wisdom, divided the
kingdom of France between the three younger brothers of the Dauphin
Charles V, the Dukes of Berry, Anjou and Burgundy. Indeed, this
division led to England winning the Hundred Year’s War (1337-1453)
after the Duke of Burgundy sided with England to protect his lucrative
Netherlands wool trade.
There is no more compelling elaboration of Shakespeare’s
brilliant dimensions – legal and esoteric - than his play King Lear. We
have seen the legal dimension and now we turn to the esoteric.
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